Americans are the most ungrateful people on God's green Earth.

[daddyusmaximus]

I was going through photos looking for some cool shots to put in the new great outdoor picture thread I started, and I ran across a folder of old Army photos.

There was this one I took of an Iraqi Bedouin infant in his "crib" / "bassinet", whatever you call it, in his "bedroom" (I guess) in what passes for his families "home". (a ragged old canvas tarp with 6 poles) This was between missions. I had volunteered to go out with a team, and the Chaplin, to give away some old tents to the local tribe families. I even remember an actual no holds bared fistfight (we were not allowed to interfere) between two "ladies" who wanted a "house" when we got down to the last tent. I took this in 2005, so he'd be around 16 by now... assuming he didn't get dead in the million ways there are to do so over there. Hell, for all I know he's over there making other people dead right now...


Just made me stop and think...

Americans have to have free everything.
They want to let the entire world come here for free everything.
They don't want to work for any of it.
Nothing is ever their fault.
Everybody is a racist.

Too bad lefties can't stop, and think... or better yet, help solve the damn problems, instead of creating them.


Anyway, here he is, cute as a bug in a rug.

 

[Tactically Fat]

I think that the more "we" have, the less we tend to be thankful for.

So I pretty much agree.

 

[MCgrease08]

Too bad we can't send more lefties abroad so they can see things like this first hand. Maybe that would help open their eyes to how good we have it here.

 

[AtTheMurph]

Why would anyone be grateful when they are taught to be entitled?

 

[Wolfhound]

It’s all a matter of perspective. I think people who have seen third world existence have a new appreciation for first world life. Military vets especially.

The kid looks well fed at least.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

It’s all a matter of perspective. I think people who have seen third world existence have a new appreciation for first world life. Military vets especially.

The kid looks well fed at least.

Probably off MREs that "fell" off passing vehicles, and the like.

 

[Drewski]

Growing up, so many of the first gen immigrants (especially from the s***hole countries) that I knew were the most grateful, it seemed, and the most patriotic. Many still are, don't get me wrong (check out Jocko Willink's interview with fellow SEAL and Polish immigrant Drago Dzieran. Good lord, talk about grateful and patriotic. This guy will make you consider your gratefulness, I bet.) When I lived in Chicago I had countless conversations with folks who were glad to tell you about the horrors they lived through in "the old country" and the fight they went through to get here. The stories I heard from my old Christian Iranian barber were particularly, ahem, hair raising. Anyway, it seems there are a lot more of what Gavin McInnes calls "immingrates" these days though - anti American immigrants. A certain corrupt and incestuous harridan representing Minnesota to the House of Reps comes to mind, but loads of others are easy to find if you even have to look. So I don't know that the blanket term of Americans is necessarily the best one to use for ungrateful folks. Israel aside, why does it seem the amount of money we give to other countries is proportional to their disdain for us?

 

[jwamplerusa]

I once witnessed an old man sitting atop a rock larger than his home pounding on it with something probably no more than a 2 lb sledge hammer. I was told he had been at it all summer from the time our first staff showed up on TDY.

I was in a conversation with someone The next year and asked if the guy had ever accomplished anything. I was told that he had eliminated the rock, carried the debris to the edge of his field, and now the area underneath the huge rock was growing crops.

Witnessing that sort of existence, along with many other things in Algeria like s*** river, will certainly change your perspective on the United States of America and what we have here.

Yes, there are far too many Americans who are ungrateful. Mostly because they've had an incredibly poor education and have received not education but indoctrination into a mindset of victimhood and entitlement.

 

[phylodog]

Mostly because they've had an incredibly poor education and have received not education but indoctrination into a mindset of victimhood and entitlement.

Precisely. This country was once inhabited by courteous, respectful people but that has been trained out of our society. It'll come back some day but not before people start going hungry and that ain't gonna be a lot of fun for anyone.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Kind of like the people who see a police state and tyranny every where they look? People need purpose and so many Americans are purposeless. Inventing problems and pretend victimization is often the result. Pretend problems are generally more interesting and much more interesting to fix. Do it right and you may even get credit for fixing an issue that didn't exist until you invented it. Call it the Frank Straub Effect.

 

[jbombelli]

Solving issues that don't exist? I'm really good at that.

But I don't work cheap.

 

[buckwacker]

Kind of like the people who see a police state and tyranny every where they look? People need purpose and so many Americans are purposeless. Inventing problems and pretend victimization is often the result. Pretend problems are generally more interesting and much more interesting to fix. Do it right and you may even get credit for fixing an issue that didn't exist until you invented it. Call it the Frank Straub Effect.

Is it more dangerous to overstate the threat of tyranny, or to be blind to it if the threat truly exists?

 

[eldirector]

Are Americans ungrateful, or are there many ungrateful people living in America?

From my personal experience, I would say many Americans simply have no idea where they sit on the bell curve of humanity. The USA is large enough, and one must travel far enough, that seeing real poverty is rare. We also hide it very well.

A 5 hour drive from Indy puts you in what... Kentucky? Not a whole lot different there than here.

A 5 hour drive from Munich, Germany can put you in the old Eastern Bloc. 5 hours in ANY direction from Jerusalem is crap. It TAKES you 5 hours to get out of Hong Kong, and it is crap the whole time.

Most Americans simply lack exposure, other than TV and movies, to much of anything other than their own existence. Simply no awareness of how grateful they should be, and the hard work it took to make (and maintain) what we have here.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Is it more dangerous to overstate the threat of tyranny, or to be blind to it if the threat truly exists?

Ask Oklahoma City.

 

[Leo]

My grandfather was an immigrant. I asked him about his old language. He said America is a good place, America speaks english. We will all speak english. He also had an ideal that whatever help you had to take in life, put more than that back, so the next guy has a chance to survive also.

If I forgot to take my hat off for the flag, there was no doubt he was upset with me.

Every job he ever had he was thankful, and loyal. Long before I was born, and work was hard to get, someone at RC Cola in Chicago gave him a job for a while. We were not allowed to buy any other brand of cola for the house. When he worked at American Bridge in Gary, He kept a map on the wall with the locations of every bridge he ever worked on, and was proud to be part of "Building America", because it is a good place.

It rubbed off on me. I am strongly opposed to any politicians that are trying to destroy America. Anytime some hollyweird or recording artist type starts taking about how this nation is no good, my first comment is "GO somewhere else, nothing is holding you here, get out!" That includes every person in Tlaib and Omars voting district.

 

[buckwacker]

Ask Oklahoma City.

I see your Oklahoma City and raise you 100 million dead in the 20th century at the hands of tyrannical communist regimes.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I see your Oklahoma City and raise you 100 million dead in the 20th century at the hands of tyrannical communist regimes.

Non sequitur.

 

[buckwacker]

Non sequitur.

That's deeply insightful

 

[actaeon277]

I think it's a matter of perspective.
Someone here goes to the Caribbean, and the weather seems GREAT.
Someone living there might think it's a cold day.

Someone from Indiana goes to Florida in late fall, wears a swimsuit.
But someone from Florida would be wearing a sweatshirt.


Many here, esp. in this thread, are able to see out of their bubbles. (To varying degrees).
Some, because of our experiences, some because they can learn thru other's experiences.

 

[Nazgul]

In the mid 70's I was in Egypt. Real eye opener. Mud huts, whole families living in a lean to on the street. Watched a woman dipping water out of the Nile River into a teapot right next to a dead and bloated water buffalo. Saw 2 grown men get into a spirited fist fight over the garbage bag full of the scraps from our lunches. Winner ate everything left and carefully folded the used boxes and dirty napkins.

Left me stunned for awhile, then drove home our abundant way of life.

Don